Petition of 1780 by slaves

for the abolition of slavery in Connecticut

Unto your Honner the govener and all the wise men of the State of
Connecticut which it hath Plesed god to Permit to gather at Hartford
unto you we the the Poor and opresed Negro Sarvents of this Town By
and with the advice of Each other and By the Desier of all the Negro
Sarvents in this State Do in a most humble maner Criy unto you for
Liberty alltho we have Desiered this faver from your honners Time
after Time yet we are Not Discuriged But Do Still intend to Beag this
faver from Time to Time tho you Should not grant us our Desiers this
Time -

We are all of us the Same mind as we was when we asked this advantige
of your honners Last may that our marsters have no more Rite to make
us Searve them then we have to make our Marsters Searve us and we have
Resen to wonder that our Case has not Ben taken into Consideration So
fare as to Grant us our Libertys But we must consider what the Book of
Eceleisastes says at 8 Chapter & at the 11 varce Because Sentence
aganst an Evel work is not Executed Speedily theirfore the hart of the
Sons of men is fully Set in them to do Evel - and for this Reson we
Think our Cause is Not Regarded and we Still must Say as Jeremiah Says
in his Lamentations at the 5 Chapter & at the 5 varce Our necks
are under Persecution we Labour and have no rest - But we are in good
hopes that your honners will Take Notis of our Case and Do unto us as
you would be Glad that we Should Do unto you if we was in your
Condishon and you in ours But it hath Plesed god to Place us in the
Sitawaytion we are now in But we Pray to god that he would Send forth
his Good Spirit into your harts and Remind you of your Duty and make
you the Instermints of Binding up the Brokenharted and of Proclaiming
Liberty to the Captives and the opening of the Prison to them that are
Bound We ask your good Will to Look upon us and we Criy unto you in
the words of Job at the 19 Chapter & at the 21 varce Have Pity
upon me have Pity upon me o ye my frindes - But we Still Look unto god
Who Pursarves Both the Servent and the marster for we Know that in the
140 Psalm at the 12 varces That we have a Sartin Promos viz. I Know
that the Lord will maintain the Cause of the afflicted and the Right
of the Poor and we think that it is time for us to Criy aloud for our
Liberty for No Son of man will give his Sarvent his Time unless he
Thinks that he Dos Roung in Keeping off him and So Considers that
their is a wa Ppurnounced aganst those that Take a way their
Neighbours Servise with wages and giveth him Not for his work Jeremiah
at the 22 Chapter & at the 13 varce wo unto him that Buildeth his
house By Unriteousness and without wages and giveth him Not for his
work and when their is a man that will give his Searvent his Liberty
we must think that he Considers what the word of God Says in the 34
Chapter and the 10 varces of the Book of Jeremiah viz. Now when all
the Princes and all the people which had Entered into the Covenent
heard that Every one Should Let his maid Searvent and Every one his
man Servent go free that None Should Serve themselves of them any more
then they obeyed and Let them go and We wish that all our marsters
would consider the word of God as Job Did and Consider the Cause of
his man Servent and of his maid Servent when we Contend with our
marsters But we Cant find Such men as will other give or Sell ous
Liberty & we all Both young and old Do ask your Kind and good will
toasist us in geting our freedom for we have indured the galling yok
of Bondige Ever Sence we have Ben Brought from our own Country and I
those of us that Was Born in this Cuntry have Ben under Bondage our
hol lives untill now and their is a grat nomber of us which have been
Brotup By Such I men as have Not Larnt us to Read the woord of God
Neather have have They Lamt us the mening of the word of I God But
have Keept us from the Knoledge of that Salvation which we have a
Right to By Jesus Christ But we Think that if we have our Liberty we
Shall have an opportunity to Larn the word of God and to Recive good
to our Sols as well as our Bodyes and if we Could But injoy our
Liberty we think that we Should Be in as Fare a way to make our
Calling and Electtion Suer and By Gods Goodness have our Sols Saved
from Eerlasting Damnation But we are keep from all favers Both Bodys
and Sols But we Look unto that god which is as able to Save us as he
is to Save our Marsters But we Depend upon the Blesings of god in
making the gurenel asimbly the insterments of Seating us at Liberty
from these men that I Now hold us as Servents - But if your honners
Refuse to asist us in Releving us from our Marsters we Shall I have
Reson to say that you [.?.] Do Not your duty as the word of
God says in the Book of Isaiah at the 58 Chapter and 6 varse
I To undo the hevy Burdens and to Leat the oppressed Go free and that
I ye Brak Every yoke - and this is the Duty of all that have an
oppertunity to Releve them that are in Disstrass I and if your honners
forgit your Duty all men may say that our Roulars Bare the Sword in
vain But if we Kant have our Desier dont think hard of us if
By our marsters we say as David Did By his
enemies Psalms the 109 and the 6 varce Set thou a wicked man
over him and I Let Satan Stand at his Right hand the 7 varc when he
Shall Be I Judged Let him Be Condemned and Let his Prayer Become Sin I
the 8 varce Let his Days Be few and Let another take his offsice I the
9 varce Let his Children Be fatherliss and his wife a
widow the 10 varce Let his Children Be Continually vagabonds and Beg
Let them Seek their Bread also out of their Desolate Places the 11
varce Let the Extortioner Catch all that he hath and Let the Stranger
Spoil all his Labour the 12 varce Let thair Be none to Extend mercy
unto him Neither Let their Be any to favour his fatherless Children I
the 13 verce Let his Posterity Be Cut off and in the generation I
folowing Let their Name Be Blotted out the 14 varce Let The iniquity
of his fathers Be Remembered with the Lord and Let Not the Sin of his
mother Be Blotted the 15 varce Let them Be Before the Lord Continually
that he may Cut off the memory of them from the Earth the 16 varce
Because that he Remembered not to Shew marcy But Perscuted the Poor
and nedy I man. And Surr we hope that you will Remember the Poor and
oppresed negro men in the State which you are Chosen to Do Justice in
So we are abliged to Lement Our Case as in Lamentations at the 5
chapter and 5 varce Our Necks are under Persecution we Labour and have
no Rest

This petition of 1880 is found among the Trumbull Papers
M.H.S., volume 13, part 2, document 251. It was first published
by Vincent J. Rosivach in "Three Petitions by Connecticut Negroes
for the Abolition of Slavery in Connecticut," Connecticut
Review, Volume XVII, no. 2, 79-92.

The editor points out that this petition is written in a reasonably
good hand by a slave who consulted a King James version of the Bible,
perhaps by having the quoted passages read to him. On the petition's
exterior are written the words, "Hartford Negro Mem Oct 1780.+
While the year 1780 is probably correct for the year of the petition,
there is some doubt its authors were actually from Hartford. and this
petition could well be another attempt by the slaves of Fairfield
county after the failure of their petition of 1779. We know neither
the number or identity of the petitioners. The fact that this
petition is found among Governor Trumbull's papers leads Rosivach to
suspect that the Governer never bothered to forward it to the Assembly.